What to Do When Your Site is Attracting the Wrong Clients

You’ve poured a lot of time and energy into building a website for your business

Your social media profiles are up and running

Your graphics and visual branding are on point…

You’ve written some GREAT blog content… and people are sharing it like mad on social media…

But…

For some strange reason you seem to be attracting the wrong clients to your site…

What gives???

The Root of the Problem

Several months ago I received an inquiry from a customer that needed help with updating her site.

Thing is…

When she reached out to me I could tell that she was frustrated with the progress of building her online presence.

She stated that:

She had spent a ton of money on a website that was not doing much for her biz…

There were a small number of qualified leads coming in

She wasn’t sure what the issues were and why after all of the HARD work she put into her site…that the right people were not contacting her…

Sooo….

As with all my prospective clients, I headed over to her website to do a digital branding audit.

As I started browsing around the site, almost IMMEDIATELY I realized what the issues were on the site.

These Are Issues that I See All of the Time with Websites

Now… I want to state for the record:

When I built the YourChicGeek blog the first time around, I struggled with the same issue. The site looked great, and ran like a champ…

But…

It was not attracting the right people to me…at all.

So I decided to do something about it. I hired someone to conduct a usability test and audit of the site. I did this because I was eager to find out how “other people” viewed my site so that I could make improvements to it.

In truth, this was the BEST money I have ever spent because the results of the testing were very enlightening to me.

Here is What I Discovered from These Audits

#1: My Home Page Copy and Messaging Was “Ambiguous”

Yep..thats right. The site was not telling people anything about who I was and what I was going to help them with.

In fact, my brand messaging was super confusing. One one hand I was telling people that I was there to help them start a brand online.

On the other hand I was telling some people I was here to help them do something else.

After working with someone to get clearer on my brand messaging, I realized that my brand is an EMPOWERMENT brand.

I teach people (small businesses) how to use digital marketing tools and technology to build “unstoppable” brands via the web —-> DIY style!

Now…

Every piece of content that I create here on the blog is centered around this messaging.

#2: I focused too much on how “pretty” the site was and not enough on “Relevance”

Have you been here before?

“Oh this color is off the chain” and is gonna look great with my logo…or

“ThisWordPress Theme” is FIRE! This is gonna make my site look sooo amazeballs”.

In fact, if you want to improve your chances of outshining your competitors you should make sure your design is on point.

But…

My friend…a “pretty” website does not mean that you are going to “Woo” visitors into taking action. Not by a long shot.

You HAVE to make sure that your site is effectively communicating a “relevant” message to the RIGHT audience. In essence, your site should aim to “attract” the right peeps and “repel” the wrong ones.

#3. Some of the Call to Action’s on My Site were Not Compelling Enough

You read that right!

To my surprise, the CTA’s (Call to Action) buttons that I was using on the site were “kinda” weak.

As an example:

I was using CTA’s (Call to Action’s) like:

Let’s work together – I got called out on this one by the person I hired to perform the usability test on my site. Her feedback was (Ummmm — > What If I’m not ready to work with you). I thought it was cute and personable, but to her it wasn’t

Start the FREE 7-Day Course – Errr to my surprise, the chica that audited my site did not like this call to action. So she recommended that I used something different.

“Glad You’re Here, What Would You Like to Do Next”? One of my friends commented on this and told me “ well ummm I don’t know what I want to do next”. I need you to tell me what to do….

So yea, ya girl had to go back and revisit these CTA’s.

So, What Should You Do When You’re Not Attracting the Right Clients Online?

Here are a few things to try:

#1: Perform an audit and a usability test of your site

Thats righttttt! You would be surprised at what a good ole fashioned audit would do for ya.

For example:

One thing that you can do is use Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode to perform some audits of your site. You can use this opportunity to check for broken links, broken funnels, your opt-in forms to test to make sure that they work.

#2: Update your Web Copy and Site Headlines

Guys, the messaging of your site is CRITICAL. If there is one area of your business that I would recommend getting some professional assistance with — it is copywriting.

I didn’t know how off kilter the copy on my site was until I ran the usability audit months ago.

I’m here to tell you….It was worth every penny.

Because…

When someone lands in your site, it should pass the 5 second test. Don’t make em guess what you do. Let them know….

#3: Create a Great Value Proposition for your Brand

As I was working through my site re-design, this was one of the things that I spent a little bit of time researching to understand more about.

I foundthis article from ConversionXL super useful (you should check it out too). Based on this post, your value proposition essentially tells your audience (what you do and who you do it for).

The folks over at ConversionXL gave this tip about creating a value propositions:

“Would you be able to explain to your friend what the offer is and how they’d benefit?”

This is the BEST piece of advice I’ve heard from someone about creating a great value proposition. In this noisy digital era we are in anything that you can do to separate yourself from all of the other folks online — u wanna do it.

#4: Make Sure that your Content aligns with the NEEDS of YOUR ideal clients

You’ve heard this advice before, but yet…you keep writing those articles about what you ate last Saturday….

My friend, that is not going to cut it… at all…unless you are running a review website for food or something.

Thing is…

Your peeps have REAL needs.

They have challenges that need solving. Your goal is to write content that helps them overcome some of those challenges.

Be intentional about what you write as your content is the engine that will propel your site forward. (By the way, if you need help writing content like a CHAMP, check out the Digital Domination Bundle here)

#5: Figure out What Keeps your Ideal Clients “Up at Night” and Create Solutions For Them

This is by far one of the smartest things I’ve done for my brand. “Guessing” what the folks you want to work with are struggling with is not a good way to go…

“Can you show me how to create branded graphics that look as good as yours”…

As more people continued to ask me this question (and after running several surveys to my community) it dawned on me that “graphic design” is a hurdle for a lot of small business owners.

So what did I do?

I created a DIY course to teach small business owners how to design their “OWN” professional graphics.

This my friend is the importance of having an “ear” to listen to problems and also surveying your community to find out what they struggle with.

To take things a step further, you can also have free consultations with your community too to find out what they struggle with.

Your Turn

If your site is currently attracting the wrong clients, what is your biggest takeaway from this post? If your site is doing a great job of attracting the right clients, what advice would you give to other struggling?

Kim

Kim, YourChicGeek is a tech savvy diva + founder of YourChicGeek.com. She is passionate about teaching small biz's how to go from unnoticed to unstoppable online using tech and digital marketing. Kim has created several online courses and DIY trainings in the Blazing Branding Academy that help small businesses flourish online. You can contact Kim to hop on a quick 15 minute call to chat about your digital marketing goals.

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Hello there! I am Kim George, YourChicGeek and I'm here to help you go from Unnoticed to Unstoppable on the web with make TECH and digital marketing. Let's Get To It!